Linguistic Lesson

Take a moment to examine the word "y'all" lingustically (or whatever word means what I'm talking about). It is a contraction springing from the dialect of the Southern United States. The words it is contracting are "you" and "all." Not "ya" and "all." So why do people put the apostrophe between the "a" and the first "l?" Why? Whyyyyyyyyyy? Stop it!

PTA

I am totally apathetic to entertainment. Your CDs, movies and television can kiss it, if you know what I mean and I think you do. I am bored by everything in my DVD collection, everything in my iPod, and everything on TV. There is nothing new at all. I think it's because we have too many choices. I miss the days when my CD collection consisted of a John Mayer, some 70s soft rock, and Dashboard Confessional. It was easy to pick what was going in my CD player - it just depended on what kind of mood I was in. Now, I have at least ten different choices for whatever mood I'm in, so it ends up taking way too long for me to make a decision, and I just get pissed off, and the moment of having to pick a CD becomes an experience to be dreaded. The same goes for movies. I could watch the Godfather. Or I could watch the Godfather Part II. I could watch the Original Star Wars Trilogy, or I could watch the Prequel Trilogy. I am bored with all of it. Yes, I said I was bored with Star Wars. Get your tar and feathers now. I feel a little like I have Kurt Vonnegut's Post-Timequake Apathy (PTA). I should start saying Kilgore Trout's mantra over and over. "I was sick, but now I'm well, and there's work to be done..."

Dum Dum Da Dum

Oh, you know what I should be doing right now? Finishing my short story. You know what I am doing right now? I'm blogging. My priorities are soooo on. Anyway I think it's about time to share my Wedding Playlist. I have one or two that are kind of typical. I was not, after all, born singing Blitzkrieg Bop, but I do believe that I have a good mix of the delightfully obscure.

1. Do You Realize? - The Flaming Lips
2. Speak Softly Love - Andy Williams (I realize that this is from the Godfather and has all sorts of creepy decapitated horse connotations, but hey, you don't have to marry me)
3. Hey Girl - Dashboard Confessional
4. I Got It Bad (And That Ain't Good) - Ella Fitzgerald (because every relationship needs a dose of realism)
5. Of All The Gin Joints In All The World - Fall Out Boy
6. La Vie En Rose - Edith Piaf
7. Someday My Prince Will Come - Miles Davis
8. Turn Me On - Norah Jones (dirty!)
9. Man - Yeah Yeah Yeahs
10. All I Want Is You - Barry Louis Polisar
11. You Make Me Feel So Young - Frank Sinatra
12. How Sweet It Is (To Be Loved By You) - James Taylor (what the hell is it with all these parentheses?)

Family Time

I got my mom to see Juno. She really liked it, thank goodness. I thought the abortion humor might have put her off. It made me mildly uncomfortable so there was about a fifty-fifty shot of it making her head explode. I was also concerned about the hype. I know that when I hear eighty thousand people telling me how great a movie is, it totally kills it for me when I finally do see it. I'm sure I would have liked Donnie Darko if I hadn't seen it after my friends had been having moviegasms about it for over a year. Luckily, I saw Juno before the bulk of the over-adulation started, so I actually got to enjoy it.
Now I'm over at my grandparents' house. I know that visiting one's grandparents is the right thing to do, since I, too, one day will be old and boring and will want my bitchy, emo grandchildren to visit me, but I still spend most of my time on the computer. Or reading, if there are enough people here so that I can actually get away with it. On holidays, when everyone comes to our house, my mother is fond of coming into my room and yelling at me to put down my book and socialize with my relatives, but the crystal-clear subtext here is "If I have to be out here with them, then you have to be out here with them."
I do have some relatives that are kind of cool, but I can still only spend quality time up to a certain point. My coolest relatives, my much older second cousin and his wife, live in Dallas, and we never see them. They shun us, as they have every right to. Maybe one day, I, too, will become cool enough to shun my relatives.

Use you f***ing words

Today in my fiction class something came to my attention. When we're going around the table and saying what we think of the stories, there is this one girl who frequently says that the stories are "superb." Everytime she says it, she drives me crazy. That is a serious word, and it should only be used when it's true. She's contributing to the horrible pandemic of word inflation that our world experiences. I'm guilty of it, too. I say that I hate nuts. I don't hate nuts. I dislike nuts. And I always say stuff like, "Velvet Goldmine is the greatest movie ever." It's really good, but it's not the greatest movie ever. The more we throw around these adjectives and adulations, the more they are devalued. What words will we use when something really deserves it?
Perhaps the greatest victim of this disease is love. Who hasn't loved pizza or American Idol? For that matter, who hasn't been in love when it's really just a crush. Love is a word that has been used so much that it almost doesn't even exist anymore. Love, real love, (in the romantic fashion) happens only once, if you're lucky. And we should treat the word with the respect it deserves.
So this is me saying to you that the next time you say something is perfect or horrifying, take a moment to think, Is it really? Or someday you may find that your words don't mean anything.

P.S.

An amendment to the previous list. At first I thought it was a little too inappropriate, but then I thought that anyone at my funeral who I actually like will find it just as appropriate as I do.

10. Good Riddance (Time of Your Life) - Green Day

For All Occasions

Due to a couple of funerals I went to over Christmas (two uncles died within two days of each other), I started thinking about my funeral. Easily, the most important aspect of the funeral is the music. I'll be dead, and I won't really give a crap what kind of lining is in the casket, but it is certainly the duty of any responsible person to provide some decent tunes for the prostrate mourners. Nothing sappy, i.e. no Sarah MacLachlan or James Taylor, though under most circumstances I do love me some James Taylor. Anyway, here, in no particular order, is the list I briefly compiled from my iTunes.

1. So Long, Astoria - The Ataris
2. If the Brakeman Turns My Way - Bright Eyes
3. The Swiss Army Romance - Dashboard Confessional
4. Thanks for the Memories - Fall Out Boy
5. Learn to Fly - The Foo Fighters
6. Bruised - Jack's Mannequin (when the hell is that new album coming out, by the way?)
7. Seven Years - Norah Jones
8. Miles Apart - Yellowcard
9. Several Ways to Die Trying - Dashboard Confessional

Now, hopefully, I will have many, many years until there is a need for this list, and I will most likely add and detract from it as those years pass. However, as it stands, these are the choices.

Extra! Extra!

I must say that the life of a newspaperwoman is no stroll on the beach. I spend more time working on my articles for the Daily Mississippian than I do on my schoolwork. I am a very awkward person when on the phone, and this job requires a LOT of talking on the phone, especially to strangers. I had to buy one of those earbud thingies so that I may talk and type at the same time when on the phone. Next, I'll have to buy a tape recorder. On the whole, making things up in journalism is frowned upon. In fact, mere seconds ago, whilst I was writing this very entry. I was given two more assignments for this week in addition to the one I already had. It's not like I have midterms this week or anything. I've got it all under control, though, I think. I think.